"That I was not the instigator," he answered sullenly.
"It is all one," she returned, "for at least it was done with your sanction, and you took a share in that cruel sport, instead of restraining it, as was clearly your duty. It is upon you, the captain, that the responsibility rests."
"Lady," he explained, "they are wild souls, but very true."
"True to their wildness, maybe," she answered him disdainfully. Then she proceeded: "You will remember that twice before has Messer Gonzaga had occasion to admonish you. These last two nights your men have behaved riotously within my walls. There has been hard drinking, there has been dicing, and such brawling once or twice as led me to think there would be throats cut among your ranks. You were warned by Messer Gonzaga to hold your followers in better leash, and yet to-day, without so much as drunkenness to excuse them, we have this vile affair, with yourself for a ringleader in it."
There followed a pause, during which Ercole stood with bent head like one who thinks, and Francesco turned his wonder-laden glance upon this slight girl with the gentle brown eyes which had been so tender and pitiful. Marvelling at the greatness of her spirit, he grew—all unconsciously—the more enslaved.
Gonzaga, all unconcerned in this, eyed Fortemani in expectation of his answer.
"Madonna," said the bully at last, "what can you look for from such a troop as this? Messer Gonzaga cannot have expected me to enlist acolytes for a business that he told me bordered upon outlawry. Touching their drunkenness and the trifle of rioting, what soldiers have not these faults? When they have them not, neither have they merit. The man that is tame in times of peace is a skulking woman in times of war. For the rest, whence came the wine they drank? It was of Messer Gonzaga's providing."
"You lie, hound!" blazed Gonzaga. "I provided wine for Madonna's table, not for the men."
"Yet some found its way to them; which is well. For water on the stomach makes a man poor-spirited. Where is the sin of a little indulgence, Madonna?" he went on, turning again to Valentina. "These men of mine will prove their mettle when it comes to blows. They are dogs perhaps—but mastiffs every one of them, and would lose a hundred lives in your service if they had them."
"Aye, if they had them," put in Gonzaga sourly; "but having no more than one apiece, they'll not care to spare it."
"Nay, there you wrong them," cried Fortemani, with heat. "Give them a leader strong enough to hold them, to encourage and subject them, and they will go anywhere at his bidding."
"And there," put in Gonzaga quickly, "you bring us back to the main issue. Such a leader you have shown us that you are not. You have done worse. You have been insubordinate when you should not only have been orderly, but have enforced orderliness in others. And for that, by my lights, you should be hanged. Waste no more time on him, Madonna," he concluded, turning to Valentina. "Let the example be made."
"But, Madonna——" began Fortemani, paling under the tan of his rugged countenance.
Gonzaga silenced him.
"Your words are vain. You have been insubordinate, and for insubordination there is but one penalty."
The bully hung his head, deeming himself lost, and lacking the wit to retort as Francesco unexpectedly retorted for him.
"Madonna, there your adviser is at fault. The charge against the man is wrong. There has been no insubordination."
"How?" she questioned, turning to the Count. "None, say you?"
"A Solomon is arisen," sneered Gonzaga. Then peevishly; "Waste not words with him, Madonna," he pursued. "Our business is with Fortemani."
"But stay, my good Gonzaga. He may be right."
"Your heart is over-tender," answered Romeo impatiently. But she had turned from him now, and was begging Francesco to make his meaning clearer.
"Had he raised his hand against you, Madonna, or even against Messer Gonzaga, or had he disobeyed an order given him by either of you, then, and then only, could there be question of insubordination. But he has done none of these things. He is guilty of grossly misusing my servant, it is true, but there is no insubordination in that, since he was under no promise of loyalty to Lanciotto."
They stared at him as though his words were words of recondite wisdom instead of the simple statement of a plain case. Gonzaga crestfallen, Fortemani with a light of hope and wonder shining in his eyes, and Madonna with a faint nodding of the head that argued agreement. They wrangled a while yet, Gonzaga bitter and vindictive and rashly scornful of both Francesco and Fortemani. But the Count so resolutely held the ground he had taken that in the end Valentina shrugged her shoulders, acknowledged herself convinced, and bade Francesco deliver judgment.
"You are in earnest, Madonna?" quoth Francesco in surprise, whilst a black scowl disfigured the serenity of Gonzaga's brow.
"I am indeed. Deal with him as you account best and most just, and it shall fare with him precisely as you ordain."
Francesco turned to the men-at-arms. "Unbind him, one of you," he said shortly.
"I believe that you are mad," cried Gonzaga, in a frenzy, but his mood sprang rather from the chagrin of seeing his interloper prevail where he had failed. "Madonna, do not heed him."
"I pray you let be, my good Gonzaga," she answered soothingly, and Gonzaga, ready to faint from spite, obeyed her.
"Leave him there, and go," was Paolo's next order to the men, and they departed, leaving the astonished Fortemani standing alone, unbound and sheepish.
"Now mark me well, Messer Fortemani," Francesco admonished him. "You did a cowardly thing, unworthy of the soldier that you would have men believe you. And for that, I think, the punishment you received at my hands has been sufficient, in that the indignity to which I submitted you has shaken your standing with your followers. Go back to them now and retrieve what you have lost, and see that in the future you are worthier. Let this be a lesson to you, Messer Fortemani. You have gone perilously near hanging, and you have had it proved to you that in moments of peril your men are ready to raise their hands against you. Why is that? Because you have not sought their respect. You have been too much a fellow of theirs in their drinking and their brawling, instead of holding yourself aloof with dignity."
"Lord, I have learnt my lesson!" answered the cowed bully.
"Then act upon it. Resume your command, and discipline your men to a better order. Madonna, here, and Messer Gonzaga will forget this thing. Is it not so, Madonna? Is it not so, Messer Gonzaga?"
Swayed by his will and by an intuition that told her that to whatever end he might be working, he was working wisely, Valentina gave Fortemani the assurance Francesco begged, and Gonzaga was forced grudgingly to follow her example.
Fortemani bowed low, his face pale and his limbs trembling as not even fear had made them tremble. He advanced towards Valentina, and sinking on one knee, he humbly kissed the hem of her gown.
"Your clemency, Madonna, shall give you no regret. I will serve you to the death, lady, and you, lord." At the last words he raised his eyes to Francesco's calm face. Then, without so much as a glance at the disappointed Gonzaga, he rose, and bowing again—a very courtier—he withdrew.
The closing of the door was to Gonzaga a signal to break out in a torrent of bitter reproofs against Francesco, reproofs that were stemmed midway by Valentina.
"You are beside yourself, Gonzaga," she exclaimed. "What has been done, has been done with my sanction. I do not doubt the wisdom of it."
"Do you not? God send you never may! But that man will know no peace until he is avenged on us."
"Messer Gonzaga," returned Francesco, with an incomparable politeness, "I am an older man than are you, and maybe that I have seen more warring and more of such men. There is a certain valour lurks in that bully for all his blustering boastfulness and swagger, and there is, too, a certain sense of justice. Mercy he has had to-day, and time will show how right I am in having pardoned him in Madonna's name. I tell you, sir, that nowhere has Monna Valentina a more faithful servant than he is now likely to become."